Chapter Text
Turbo didn’t really know what to expect when he was first plugged in, but it certainly wasn't a little girl he didn't know calling his name, glowing and popping in and out of existence, and punching him in the stomach within the first 10 minutes of visiting the new neighbors. Or falling to the ground because damn she hit hard- Pause. Rewind... So Retro games, right? Pretty cool. Very cool, in fact.
Tron, Tappers, Pac-Man. After the Fix-It Felix cabinet had that bonus level get unlocked, a lot of the kids that came to the arcade seemed to have a growing interest in these 80s and 90s game cabinets. They were making more money at the end of the day, oftentimes, than even the DDR machine Litwak had spent nearly 5 grand on. The regular kids were asking him if he had plans on getting any other older games cabinets and, to be fair, he hadn’t until recently. So now he was on Facebook, on the arcade manager group, asking if anyone had any 80s and 90s game cabinets for sale in his area. There were a couple, but they were all so expensive! Road Blasters was nearly 700 dollars, Mario Brothers was 1,500, Galega was even more than that. All of them were out of his price range. Not even to mention the shipping costs. But he couldn’t let the kids down… he would think of something.
A couple days pass with no new offers and Litwack is just about to close up when he gets a call from an old friend. “Hello? Litwak speaking.” “Heyyyyy Stan the man! It’s Johnny. From Blast Off arcade and Pizza?” “Oh, Hey Johnny! What’s been happening? How’s Rich been? It’s been a while!” Litwak locked up the doors, sandwiching his phone between his ear and shoulder as he continued to shut down the arcade. “Rich is doing great, man. He and I finally got accepted for surrogacy last month and are gonna be bringing home little Apollo in about 9 months! But my future family is not actually why I called! I heard you were looking for retro cabinets.”
Litwak hummed, nodding to himself as he made his way to the back. “That’s amazing! Tell him I said congrats! And yes, I am. Do you have any contenders?” “I do! I got an old storage locker not too long ago and it had a few games in really good condition. One of which is Turbo Time! 200 bucks and you come pick it up and it’s yours.” Litwak stopped mid-step, mouth agape. “Oh holy shit, are you serious? I used to love that game, and it made so much money before that weird glitch happened. Are you sure it’s safe? That's not gonna have any viruses or weird like- code rot, right?” “I’ve had it booted up for the past week and nothings been weird so far. The kids just aren’t a fan of it on the floor. It just doesn't fit the vibe of an arcade from outer space, ya know? So, 200 and a drive. That good for you?”
That had been perfect for Litwak. So perfect, in fact, that the guy had a new cabinet in his arcade by the end of the week. For nostalgia’s sake, he decided to move around some of the cabinets near Fix-It Felix and was able to place Turbo Time right back next to it, just like it had been the first time. Of course he had to play-test a round.. or five. He’d just have to keep an eye on Sugar Rush. Just in case some weird cross code rot started to happen again.
So. Back to the task at hand… Turbo being in pain. He was clutching his stomach, rolling around on the weirdly sticky dirt under him, while a very very angry child screamed censored profanity at him.
Another girl hurried to his side, a different retro racer that looked similar to Turbo, but in a bright pink and white tracksuit and helmet, two large blond pigtails sticking out from under the helmet. “Hey! What’s the big deal, kid? Turbo, are you okay?” Turbo nodded, slowly getting up on his own, even as the pink recolor tried to help him. “Yeah- yeah, I’m okay, Gogo… thank you…” As he was being helped up, another racer stood in front of them, this one in light blue and white and missing the pigtails, looking down at this kid that just walloped his Boss. “What the heck, barfbag? You don’t just come up to strangers and kick them to the curb!”
“Get out of my way!” The girl screamed, pure vitriol in her voice, glowing blue and disappearing before his eyes, making him sputter and whip his head back and forth. She reappeared beside Gogo and Turbo and immediately kicked him back down, scrambling over him and grabbing him by the collar. She pulled him hard into her face, glaring pure fury into his eyes. “Why the heck are you back here?? How are you back here? What the heck do you want with my game? You're gonna try to steal my life again? Huh? HUH?!” She was crying, practically sobbing through her anger, shaking him and making his head smack against the ground. At some point, his helmet had come undone and rolled off, that did not stop the girl from trying to give him a concussion. The more she screamed and cried the worse the glitching got. Making her lose her grip for a couple seconds. Only for her to slam his head back down even harder.
While his skull was being rattled, a crowd was forming. One, because there was a commotion, Two, because it was the President causing said commotion, and Three- Turbo?? And- Turbo clones??? Where did these guys come from? Why? How? What was going on? It didn’t take long for the RIG to show up, Royal icing guards, and pull the girl from Turbo’s body. Gogo had been being held back by the blue Turbo clone, and had almost thanked them before she and the blue one were shoved forwards, towards Turbo. All three of them were surrounded by guards, pushing away the crowds, and Gogo could see through the barricade that the Guards were comforting the girl that just attacked them. She was crying and one of the donut people was crouched down, hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay President Vanellope?” “No… I’m not. I wanna go home… put them somewhere where they can't hurt anyone and go get Ralph. I-” Gogo and Vanellope caught eyes and the younger girl just looked away, wiping her face. “I need time to think. Please bring me home.” “Yes, President Vanellope.”
With that, the three Turbo Time racers were captured and brought to the massive castle on the horizon and thrown into a cell underneath it. All of them were told to stay quiet and to not try anything because they had no access to code here… Gogo didn’t have a clue what they meant, but at least Turbo wasn't being attacked here. He was laying against the wall, missing his helmet, and battling the biggest headache of his life. Both of his racers were sitting next to him, all huddled together and rubbing his back. As he held his head in his hands, he was taking slow, deep breaths. He was shaking, unable to stop bouncing his foot.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop her Boss, she just… poof! And popped right beside you guys. I was just scared Gogo was gonna get hurt too if she got in between you two.” Turbo slowly shook his head, keeping it down and his eyes shut. “You did what you could, Hyperdrive. I just… I had no idea what she was talking about.” Gogo sniffled and burst into tears right then and there, sobbing into her hands. “I’m so sorry I dragged you two here! I had just been so excited to see a game with so many other girls racing just like me! I should’ve never brought us here.” Hyperdrive had been about to open his mouth to respond, just about to tell Gogo that there was no way for any of us to know what was going to happen, when the cell door opened. All three of them looked up, even if the light hurt Turbo’s head. Gogo sniffled and tried to wipe her face dry quickly, not wanting the guard to see her crying.
One of the donut guards was standing there with Turbo’s helmet. “I believe this is yours. Are any of you hurt?” “Yeah no damn! That crazy kid nearly took my Boss’ head off!” Hyperdrive was up on his feet immediately, ready to defend his friends, when the guard raised a hand. “I understand the President acted brash and aggressive. She has asked me to come down and return this.” He offered the white helmet to Hyperdrive, who immediately snatched it from the guard and brought it back over to Turbo.. “... right… I’m also here to offer medical attention.”
Turbo nodded, raising a hand. “Thank you, good man… My head is killing me, it seems like the little lady really did a number on me.” The guard nodded, stepping into the cell to check the back of Turbo’s head and make sure there was no broken skin. He handed a jar filled with a couple candies to the racer, mostly chocolate of strange colors and a few pieces of taffy. “These will help your head and any other pain. I ask each of you to eat a piece of taffy as well. It’s just a treat, a small apology. You will be brought back up to speak to the President as soon as a representative from another game shows up. Sit tight. I apologize on behalf of Vanellope, as well as Sugar Rush itself.”
They were left alone again, Hyperdrive sitting back down beside Turbo and handing him his helmet, which Turbo immediately took and pulled on, sighing a breath of relief. The all-around pressure from the heavy helmet helped his headache a bit, squeezing his temples. “... I hate chocolate…” The racer sighed as he popped the chocolates in his mouth and chewed them up, trying to not retch. Hyperdrive just shrugged and threw the piece of taffy in his mouth, chewing on it for a while like gum. “Tastes fine, kinda like a weak artificial banana.” Turbo made a noise of disgust, frowning and quickly popping it in his mouth, swallowing it as fast as he could without much chewing. “Wow they really do hate us, banana taffy is the worst and they are trying to apologize to us with that?” Gogo just gave a soft laugh at the boys’ antics and tore off about half the taffy, putting the rest in a small pocket in her tracksuit. For later, if she wanted, as she had always liked banana taffy. “You don’t like chocolate, you don’t like banana taffy, have you ever thought that maybe you just hate candy?” Turbo made a noise of offence, hand to his chest. “I’ll have you know that candy cigarettes are amazing and I almost never leave the house without several pieces of big league chew. Of course, the one time I forget them.” They laughed amongst themselves, trying to make a little light of the frankly awful situation they were stuck in.
They were in that cell for a while, though it was hard to tell time without a clock. Hyperdrive had taken off his helmet, laying flat on the ground with his locks splayed out around him. He had kept them in a ponytail and wrapped up in his helmet for too long. Gogo was picking at the walls, they seemed to be made of sugar cubes. She wondered if they could get out of here if she licked the wall. Turbo’s headache had mostly calmed down, so he was napping. Hyper sighed loudly, kind of waking Turbo up, but definitely not enough for him to open his eyes. “Thank goodness the twins didn't wanna come, huh? I think they would’ve made fun of you for getting your ass beat by a little girl.” The corners of Turbo’s mouth curled up slightly, humming. Gogo laughed, nodding. “They would’ve never let you live it down.” Turbo nodded slowly, they were absolutely right. He hummed as he thought about what the twins were probably doing. They had seen a Tapper’s on the way over here and, knowing them, Fast was trying to outdrink the biggest guy in there and winning, and Lane was trying to pickpocket anyone that looked the most drunk.
Noise from the cell door again. A different guard this time, a large Oreo guard. “Alright, freaks. The president is waiting for you. You can either consent to getting your hands tied behind your backs or I can pick you up and carry you to the throne room. Your choice.” Hyperdrive stayed on the ground, stretching out and getting comfortable, smirking. “I’ll be carried, thanks. Princess carry, please~” The guard laughed sarcastically while pulling out some licorice rope. Gogo sighed softly, standing and nudging Hyperdrive’s leg. “Hyper, please just get up, let's get this over with.” Regardless of Hyper’s desire to be as annoying as possible, all three lined up and allowed themselves to be tied together. They walked out of the cell with as little grumbling as any of them could manage. Turbo was still quite tired, but he couldn't just nod off before getting answers from that angry little girl.
They were marched through candy-coated halls of this palace and into a massive throne room of sorts. Or it had been a throne room at one point, now it looked more like a living room that a little girl had decorated. Where the throne used to be, a massive, plush couch was in its place. There was a big fluffy rug on the floor that looked like a peppermint and the walls were lined with posters and shelves of knick knacks. The three racers were sat behind a table, groups of candy people along with several other game characters all set up on chairs to either side of them. Turbo suddenly realized they were basically being put on trial… So much for making friends with any of the new neighbors. The white-clad racer would feel many pairs of eyes on him, all burning into his back.
A door behind the giant couch opened and out stepped Vanellope, followed by three others. A very large man in broken overalls, a much smaller man with a hat, and a tall woman… holding a gun??? The smaller man was the first to actually look over at them and he looked… upset, eyebrow upturned and chewing on his cheek. He didn’t seem angry at Turbo or his friends, just upset. Disappointed even. Turbo glanced away, a sinking feeling in his chest, and caught the eyes of the much larger guy. This stared at him with visceral hatred on his face. If looks could kill, holy shit- Turbo’s stomach dropped and his gaze fell to the table in front of them. He just wanted to go home now, he didn't care about answers, these other games were terrifying.
A donut guard took center stage as Vanellope and her entourage got set up. She got everyone’s attention with a whistle before speaking. “We have been gathered today to put Turbo and… his clones on trial for-” “We aren’t clones! We’re racers too!” Hyperdrive cut the guard off and stood, having been stewing in his anger for as long as he could. Turbo tried to pull him down, but he resisted, yanking his arm out of the racer’s limited reach. “We got here to say hi to our neighbors, Boss got attacked by that rabid little girl, and now were the ones in trouble? That’s bullcrap!”
“Hyperdrive! Sit your ass down before we get in even more trouble!” Gogo had tried to stay quiet, but now there was more yelling and Turbo was stuck in the middle of it, no matter how much he tried to shrink out of existence. The room erupted, several people yelling, the guards trying to calm everyone down, and the folks on the couch looked between each other for a few moments, seemingly unsure of what to do. After a few bewildered looks, the huge guy stood up from the couch and a booming voice took over the room, stunning everyone silent. “Everyone quiet down! Now!” He gave a long huff, sitting back down next to Vanellope and folding his hands. The donut guard spoke while Turbo pulled Hyper back down. “From now on, you only speak when spoken to. You answer questions honestly and without rambling, do you all understand?”
The three racers nodded and she continued. “We are here today for the trial of Turbo and his racers. President Vanellope, you may start.” The donut guard stepped back and all eyes turned to Vanellope as she addressed the room. “Thank you, Pumpkin. I decree that we just have them executed and we continue on with our lives, shall we?”
The room once again erupted in chaos and this time it was the smaller man to yell over everyone this time. “Hang on, hang on one moment! Vanellope, we need to figure out how they are here first! How Turbo escaped the beacon and how Gogo and Hyperdrive are back." Both racers blinked in confusion at their own names. How the heck does this guy know them? The larger man held up a hand. “Felix, come on. It shouldn’t matter. All that matters is we make sure they don’t hurt anyone? What if Turbo targets someone else this time? We have them captured, we can't risk letting them go.” “Ralph, buddy, you gotta listen to me. If he was able to come back from that, then he can come back from anything else we throw at him. We went through the trouble to get them here, let's just ask them how they are back.”
So much for them to process. Turbo had no idea what they were talking about, him coming back from what? Who would he target? What does targeting entail?? Gogo is still hung up on the fact that this Felix guy knew who they were while Hyperdrive was just pissed off, foot tapping on the plush rug beneath them. Finally, Turbo stood, looking up at the arguing men with a deep breath. “Permission to speak?” His voice rang out, catching everyone off guard. No lisp, no ridiculous flair, just slightly rough.
Ralph and Felix looked between each other and then at Vanellope. Her brows furrowed and she shrugged, letting them choose what to do. Felix looked back at them and gave them a nervous, but clearly hopeful smile, gesturing for Turbo to continue, giving him the go ahead. The man nodded and started to recount what led them here. “My name is Turbo as it seems you all know already. This is Gogo and Hyperdrive, the other playable characters from our game, Turbo Time. I am quite confused as to what exactly is going on, you all seemingly know me- or a… version of me but- We only got plugged in last night. We are new here, we only came here to meet the neighbors, plus Gogo was excited to see other female racers and-”
“Wait wait wait, stop… You only got plugged in last night? That can’t be right, there hasn't been any new games since Hero’s Duty, right?” Vanellope had stood up, hopping down from the couch and walking across to the table. Ralph got up to follow her, standing behind her with his arms crossed like a bodyguard. “Well, Litwak tries to find new games all the time… that and the popularity with “retro” games lately, there's a possibility that a different machine got plugged in. Still though.” Ralph did not trust this. This sounds like something Turbo might actually pull. He was a manipulative little worm, Ralph knew that first hand, even if that wouldn’t explain how Gogo and Hyper were back. They had absolutely been destroyed when Turbo Time had gotten unplugged the first time, but they knew that Turbo had learned a lot about code. Maybe he had just brought them back somehow? Rebuilt them from damaged code? Ralph had no idea, this all just seemed fishy to him… and why didn't the twins come with him?
Vanellope hopped up onto the table and got right into Turbo’s face, staring, studying. He felt like he was going to get punched again and was almost bracing for impact when she pulled back. “Look… I don't trust you. But the other Turbo was definitely uglier than this. Alright people, you can all go home, no execution today!” The crowds started to head out after a cacophony of boos and groans, which Hyperdrive absolutely did not appreciate and made it clear in his tone before being reeled back again by Turbo. Vanellope hummed, looking behind her “Ralph, could you untie them? I still wanna talk, but I just don’t want the audience that comes with a trial.”
“Vanellope, are you sure? I don’t know about this.” “Yeah yeah it'll be fine! You’ll be here to absolutely crush him if anything happens!” Ralph huffed a soft laugh and shrugged as if to say “fair enough”, rounding the table. He pulled the licorice rope off the racer’s wrists and all three of them rubbed at them, Gogo and Turbo stretching out their arms. While Hyperdrive cracked his knuckles, Gogo pulled Turbo into a tight hug, still shaken from the chance they could’ve just been killed like it was nothing.. “You’re rad, I wouldn't have been able to keep my words straight like that…” Turbo smiled, chuckling and patting Gogo’s back. “You don’t have to worry, it’s me. I’m the best after all.” For some reason, that caused Ralph to grimace and step away from them. Turbo made sure to take note of that.
Finally, the room was mostly emptied, leaving just the three racers, Vanellope, Ralph, and Felix. The smaller guy had asked the tall woman with the scary gun to wait outside and jumped up to kiss her on the cheek. Turbo had assumed they were sweet on each other and it was amusing that he had been able to guess that. So now they were there, sitting at a table with a massive guy that looked like he just wanted them dead, a little girl that had the power to kill them, and the one guy that had actually advocated for them. This definitely wasn’t awkward at all…
“Sooo… You guys just got plugged in?” Felix was the one to break the silence. Gogo nodded, smiling softly. “Yeah, we've only been played by Litwak so far, since we needed to be play tested for whatever reason, but we go on the arcade floor tomorrow morning. It’s been the first time we’ve been bought by a real arcade in decades. Usually we are stuck in some… basement or storage unit gathering dust.” Turbo nodded, eyes cast to the table. “So… uh could you all tell us about… “The other Turbo” if you don’t mind? I really can’t wrap my head around it all.” Ralph and Felix looked at each other for a long few seconds, but Vanellope was the one that spoke up first.
“Basically… uh. Well, I don’t know much about before he took over Sugar Rush, but from what I know… He went into the code of my game, stripped me of my princess status, erased the memories of everyone in the game, made himself the ruler of Sugar Rush named King Candy, and then painted me as some glitch monster that would be the downfall of Sugar Rush and get us unplugged.” Ralph gave a humorless laugh and nodded. “Going Turbo is kind of a verb in this arcade. He went crazy because, about 25 years ago, Turbo Time was the most popular game here. Then another racing game showed up, he got jealous, abandoned his game during opening hours, and tried to take over Road Blasters. He got both games unplugged. We thought he died with them but… turns out he had escaped into Game Central Station before things got unplugged and… yeah. Reprogramed himself and a whole other game to keep some level of control.”
Gogo had her hands over her mouth, listening to them with wide, glassy eyes. Hyperdrive was staring off into space, eyes shifting as he was trying to process all of this information. Turbo had slumped back in the chair, eyes closed. “Wait wait, had-had Gogo and Hyperdrive escaped with me-er- with-with him? The twins? … Had he just…” Turbo looked between Ralph and Felix’s faces and their expressions had answered his question for him. Turbo sat back in his chair, arms flopping either side of him, staring glassy-eyed in front of him. “Holy crap, man… this is just so much. Now I get why seeing me didn’t exactly bring back good memories.“
Vanellope shrugged, not exactly looking apologetic. “Well!-… well I regret it now, but don’t think for a moment that if you ever get weird again that I won’t do it again, you got it, monkey brain?” Vanellope stood up on the table and offered a hand for Turbo to shake. “If you promise to not be stupid, then I promise to not totally kill you.” Turbo hesitated, but did take Vanellope’s hand, shaking it. “I, Turbo, pinkie promise to not be stupid or you have full permission to kill me.” Turbo held up a pinkie and Vanellope laughed, if a little nervously, and shook pinkies. “Well… I guess I ruined my first impression. But welcome to Litwak's. You'll need someone to show you around and…”
Vanellope glanced behind her, gesturing to Ralph with a big smile. “This big guy would be happy to do so!” Ralph sputtered, looking between Turbo and Vanellope several times, even glancing back at Felix for a moment, who smiled softly, and nodded at him. He should show him around. It would be best for either of them. Ralph took in a deep breath and put on a smile, hands on his hips. “Alright, welp. Yeah I'll show you three around. So I'm Wreck-it Ralph, or just Ralph, and… this is Felix.” He gestured behind him, cuing Felix to wave, smiling. “Yes, Hello-uh… We are your direct neighbors, from Fix-it Felix Jr.”
Turbo nodded, smiling hesitantly as he and his racers stood up from the interrogation table. Gogo fiddled with her hair, Turbo laced his fingers to help with his fidgeting, Hyperdrive fiddled with his gloves. “I see, I see. Should we be… wary of anyone in the arcade given our-my… reputation.” Ralph hummed, thinking for a long moment. “Well um… had you asked before all this I would've said Vanellope. But that… mostly- got solved… So, not really. I'm sure we can roll with the punches as we go. I'll be here to help you guys with anything you may need. Felix too. We've been here for 30 years. We can help get you through anything.”
Ralph looked between the racers, how they fiddled and huddled together and rubbed the back of his neck. “How about we go and look at some of the other games, as a group? We don't have to enter any of them, but it'll be nice to know who your neighbors are. I'll help with introductions. Everyone around here loves me.” Ralph looked back to Felix and Vanellope. “I'll take care of them. You two, go rest up for tomorrow.” Felix stared at Ralph for a long moment, only when Ralph gave him a nod, did Felix give a thumbs up and start to head out as well. Vanellope ran over, hopped up, and gave Ralph a big hug. She leaned in close, cupping her hand over his ear. “If anything happens… Tell me, will ya?” Ralph smiled and nodded, ruffling up her hair. “Of course, monkey breath. Now you go relax. I'll be good.”
With that, the newbies and Ralph set off towards the train, a silence falling over the group the whole walk and the entire train ride. Gogo spoke very suddenly as they neared the doorway into Game Central Station. “I wanna go home.” Without another word, she parted from the group, rushing back to Turbo Time before too many passing people could see her. Hyperdrive looked between her and Turbo, blinking and side stepping between them in a panic. “I… I'm gonna join her. Thank you so much for the offer, Ralph but… I need some time. Can we just…”
Ralph gave a smile, thumbs up. “Rain check. I'll show you two around once you feel comfortable. Don't worry too much, kid.” Hyperdrive nodded, a worried smile barely slipping onto his face for a few moments. He was off, leaving Turbo and Ralph on their own. Turbo looked like he wanted to shrink into the floor, watching his friends rush off. Ralph softly nudged Turbo, slouching down to his level. “You can go home too if you want. This is a lot to process, so I get it, believe me, I do. We can do this another day.” Turbo’s brows furrowed and he took a deep breath, cracking his knuckles. He put on a big grin, power stance alongside it. “You think I ever back down from a challenge, of course not! I'm Turbo-Tastic!” Spouting off his silly catchphrase, he laughed, shaking out his hands. “I wanna meet the neighbors, so there's no time like the present. Let's do this.”
Turbo strutted out of Sugar Rush, a red light and alarm blaring as soon as he stepped through the threshold, causing him to jump away. A man popped in a uniform, glowing bright blue. “Name?” He spoke in a monotone voice, staring down at his notepad without looking up. “Uh… what?” “Name?” The man’s voice was firmer, already getting irritated. Turbo blinked, looking between him and Ralph, who gestured for him to answer. “Uh. My name is Turbo.” The man sighed, pushing up his glasses but, still not looking up from his notepad. “Very funny, guy. I've definitely not heard that a million times today. What is your actual name?”
Turbo made a sound of disbelief, reaching over and pulling the guy's notepad down. “My name is Turbo.” The man immediately pulled it back, finally looking up with a grimace. “Sir, please. I'm just a surge protector doing my- uh-Ahh! Turbo??” The Surge protector looked terrified, glasses askew and single hair popping up in a strange direction. He fumbled with the notepad, his form nearly discorperating. “That's what I told you the first time!” Turbo threw his arms up, landing on his hips, and tapping his foot. “My name is Turbo. Can I go now?” The guy looked back at Ralph, a silent conversation seemingly happening in just a few seconds. Ralph just an exaggerated nod and the Surge protector just cleared his throat. “I see… well… where you coming from?”
Turbo deadpanned, gesturing up to the big LED sign above them. “Sugar Rush.” “Worrying. Where you headed?” “Ralph is giving me a tour since I'm new here, so I'm not sure yet.” “ Anything to declare?” “I hate you.” “I get that a lot. Proceed.” The Surge protector blipped away from them and Ralph gave a nervous laugh. “Unfortunately, you may have to get used to that? Newbies have to talk to that guy a lot, just to make sure we keep track of them. I'm not sure why we need to do that… but hey it's neither here nor there. Let's start the tour.”
Ralph patted Turbo on the back, a lopsided smile on his face, and started to lead him around. From Sugar Rush all the way down to Hero's Duty and Dance Dance Revolution to Deal or No Deal. “Of course the arcade is closed right now, but we open in about an hour? We have Tappers where the lot of us hang out. Even the kid comes in to get a root beer sometimes. It's a swell crowd.” Turbo hums as he looks around, glancing between each game with a smirk. “This is stellar, man!” Ralph stopped short, hand going to his face. He snorted, trying to not outright laugh. Turbo furrowed his brows, head tilting. “What?”
Ralph shook his head, waving his hand. “Nothing nothing just uh- We are both from 1980s games and I used to talk with all the slang and- well being here has kind of made my vocabulary change with the times and… It's just funny hearing all those words again after so long.” Turbo laughed alongside Ralph. “Oh it's totally tubular man! You gotta agree that it's uber fly to go all in on this funky fresh dialect. Otherwise you must be some clydesdale ditz.” Turbo popped his collar and sent Ralph into a laughing fit that had him holding the wall. “You can't be doing this to me. If I start saying that stuff again, I will snap you in half.”
Turbo laughed alongside him, being able to forget, even just for a couple moments, of his apparent deadly reputation in this place. Forgetting just long enough for a small group to be gathered a distance away from them, whispering to each other. It was a group of random game characters, old and new, all glancing between the two men as they laughed together and at each other. Ralph was the first to notice them, staring over the group with a sigh. Just as Turbo said, no time like present. “Hey guys! Come meet the newbie!” He waved them over, most of them stunned silent. Many of them broke away and ran off to their own games, leaving only Zangief and Clyde, who shared a hesitant look between each other. The fighter grinned and shrugged, spinning on his heel to face the two.
Zangief smiled widely and brought his arms up as he approached them. “Wrecking man! Hello friend! How doing today, big man??” The man wrapped an arm around Ralph's neck, driving a couple knuckles into his head. He looked down at Turbo with that same giant smile. “Hello little racing man! Name is Zangief, I am fighter from Mortal Kombat! I am bad guy! Best, strongest muscles in Russia! No one beat me!” Turbo was only slightly terrified when he looked up at someone, somehow, even taller than Ralph. Zangief picked Turbo up and gave him a big crushing hug, dropping him down once at least one rib had cracked. “Ah damn- uh. Sup! My name is Turbo, from Turbo Time! I-I'm the best racer ever! I'd invite you to race but… I think you might crush any of our cars.” Zangief gave a big belly laugh, giving Turbo's helmet a nice big smack and knocking him to the side, a little dizzy. “You probably right! Small man's kart much too weak to hold all of Zangief! But I come see you race one day, okay?? Prove you are best racer, ahh??”
Turbo grinned up at the man, dropping his visor over his eyes and crossing his arms. He took on a short of haughty stance, pulling from his iI'game persona. “I'll hold you to that, big guy! I need some sort of audience to witness my rad capabilities! Gotta have someone cheering for the correct team.” He laughed, his shoulders slumping as another person approached. An orange ghost. “Hello, my name is Clyde. I'm from Pac-man . If you ever want to meet some more people, I run a couple different groups after hours. We all meet weekly at Pac-man .”
Ralph snickered as a couple cards floated over to Turbo, one for the Newbie's club and one for Bad-anon. “Clyde, I don't think Turbo counts as a bad guy. He's the titular character.” The ghost tilted, humming. “Couldn't hurt.” Turbo was starting to sweat under all this direct attention and stepped back from the group. “This is all so nice fellas, I can give the Bad-anon Card to the twins, I'm sure they'd love to join the group…” Clyde hummed, nodding. “Well thank you. I must get going, have a good day all.” Zangief huffed and gave a stern nod, patting Ralph on the back and giving one last good smack to Turbo's helmet. The racer fell backwards on his ass as the fighter laughed, walking off towards his game.
“... is everyone usually this aggressively supportive?” Turbo groaned as he stood up, nearly tripping over his own feet. Ralph chuckled and nodded. “You'd be surprised. Welp… we have an hour or two before the arcade starts to open. Wanna get a drink at Tappers? I'm sure he'd love to meet you.” Turbo mused about it; the idea of a beer was actually really inviting right now. “Sure. One drink won't make me wobble too badly on the road.” Ralph led the way to the arcade hot spot, turning to the other as soon as they were on the train. “Try not to get into any fights and we'll be great.”
As soon as they walked in, it was chaos. Drinks were being thrown, something- or someone- was on fire? There was a chugging contest in the corner. And in the center of it all… sat Fast and Lane. Fast seemed to be down at least five drinks, working on her sixth with her head down on the bar and Lane had at least three cigarettes in his mouth. Turbo gave a long, droning sigh and Ralph just stood, dumbfounded, before rushing to pour a drink over the fire hazard. Bowser… He could've put himself out. But either way- Usually Tapper kept everyone in check, kept people calm. He didn't tolerate horseplay… where was he??
Turbo marched right over to his racers, hands slamming down in front of them. It shocked them enough to notice he was there and Fast was quick to jump up and nearly punch Turbo in the face. Luckily, Turbo knew them and was able to deflect her arm, snapping in both of their faces and getting them alert. “What the hell are you two doing??” Lane stubbed out two of his cigs and leaned back in his chair. “Fun's over, dad's here.” Fast laughed, snorting. “Dad?? More like grandpa… What's up, geezer?? Whatcha want?”
Turbo deadpanned, smacking them both on the helmet. “You two are a whole year younger than me. Stop calling me old. How much of this mess is yours?” Lane looked around, their eyes lazily glancing back and forth. “Uhhhh at least 45 percent. Fast started the drinking contest. I lit a candle. The throwing of drinks is because Tapper left as soon as we walked in, saying something about how” Lane put on an awful impression of the bartender's voice. ““I'm not dealing with you two again for as long as I'm plugged in” … or something like that. I don't know, all we heard was free drinks.” Lane grinned, and Fast laughed, punching her brother's shoulder and down their drink. “Yeah! Old mustache man didn't even stick around for the riot, it's bogus!”
Ralph stepped up to the racers and hummed, blinking rapidly. “... I'm in shock, I've never seen Tapper just walk out like that. They must've made a mess the first time too…” Fast looked up at Ralph and squinted at him, mouth open in confusion. “Why is there a giant porcupine talking to me?” Ralph sighed, rolling his eyes. Ralph made his way to the back, looking around for Tapper. Ralph hadn't remembered how chaotic the twins were, though he also wasn't one to really leave his game back then either… he eventually caught sight of the bartender in the back, smoking a cigarette and clearly irritated. “Hey, Tap… uh… I think the twins are leaving soon with uh… Turbo. I'll stay and help clean up if you want help.”
The bartender sighed, taking a long final drag before stubbing out the cig and getting up. “You know I never need help cleaning, Ralph. I appreciate the offer though. But… when and how are…” Ralph nodded, looking back towards the front room where Turbo seemed to be arguing with Fast. “We are… under the impression that it's a new cabinet… new Turbo.” Tapper raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. “But you…” Ralph laughed humorlessly, shaking his head. “I'm not sure what to think. But I'm keeping a close eye on the guy. I'm sure everyone will be.” The shorter man’s eyes cast down towards the floor as he passed the wrecker. “You're doing what you can, Ralph. Just don't overwork yourself, kay, big man??” Ralph half-heartedly grinned and nodded, staring forward in thought. The wrecker knew he was stressing himself out, but at the very least, he knew it was for a good reason. Because if he finds out that this Turbo is the one that stole Sugar Rush, nearly killed his best friend, and manipulated him into ruining her life even more than he already had, then he was going to commit atrocities on that pathetic worm!
“Alright, my wonderful patrons! We have about 45 minutes before the arcade opens! Either help pick stuff up or get your butt outta my seats!” Tapper made an announcement to the whole bar, signaling everyone to get up and get out. Tapper came over to where the twins were sitting, side-eyed them while they groaned about not wanting to get up, and nodded a greeting towards Turbo. “Welcome back, racer.” Turbo laughed nervously, eyes averting and greeted him back, voice quickly changing to reflect how pissed he was once addressing the twins. “Uh… not back, but… thanks. Get up, you two! ”
“Ugh FINE !” Fast stood up with a shout, grabbing and dragging Lane with her and making him trip over the stool he had been sitting on. “See you on the track, old man!!” Both twins flipped Turbo off as they left, stumbling out of the bar. Ralph hummed, coming up behind Turbo with an awkward laugh. “... wait- Aren’t they drunk ?” Turbo rolled his eyes, following after the bumbling idiots while Ralph trailed behind. “Those two couldn’t drive sober to save their lives. Or anyone else’s for that matter.”
The train ride out of Tapper’s was silent and the twins quickly ran off to their own game once they were parked, Turbo watching them with a deadpan expression. Ralph huffed, a smirk, “You look like a disappointed grandpa.” Turbo snorted softly and shook his head, following slowly behind as they walked towards both Turbo Time and Fix-it Felix Jr. “I feel like one with them sometimes… Thanks for showing me around, sorry about the… chaos and people .” Ralph nodded, patting Turbo on the back. “I’m used to the chaos and people here; you just take your time to chill and… don’t get into trouble .” Ralph spoke firmly with that last bit, eyebrows rising and expression becoming more tense. Both warning Turbo and making sure he knew what would happen if he stepped out of line. The racer didn’t seem to realize the threat as he just smiled and thanked Ralph, walking off towards the terminal to his game. He had… so much to think about.
He sat on the train alone with his thoughts, staring blankly at the sparks that trailed in his wake. He had a couple minutes to think, wringing his hands together. So much had happened in the last couple hours and now that he was alone, it was hitting him all at once, trying to bring the headache back in full force. He closed his eyes and sat back in the seat, blocking the light with his helmet.
In just the last 12 hours he's been: beaten up, nearly given a concussion, left in a prison cell for who knows how long, put on trial for crimes he did not commit, almost shot without said trial, told a whole different version of himself has killed people, and not only killed people, but also caused the deaths of his best friends, explained that he was not the murderer they were talking about, actually let go, stared at and whispered about by strangers, told to go to therapy, and finally was able to kinda stop his idiot npcs from actively ruining another game right before opening.
He was having a bad day.